I'm the author of the new book, “Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry,” which was published by Penguin’s Portfolio imprint in January of 2013. I like to write and report on subjects where life meets money: that can be personal finance, parenting, women's issues, politics, education or career advice. Yes, I'm capable of merging them all in a single post. My goal is to surprise you, provoke you, and make you see the world in a different way. My last book was on office romance and why it works. Really. Want to get in touch? Give a holler at helaine.olen@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @helaineolen.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Bankrupt Dad?

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the bestselling Rich, Dad, Poor Dad series of financial advice books, is offering his fans yet another lesson in how the rich are different than you and me: they file for bankruptcy not because of ill health or unemployment related issues, but instead as a strategic business move.

Rich Global LLC, one of the corporate arms Kiyosaki has done business under, filed for bankruptcy protection in August, after it was ordered to pay just under $24 million to the Learning Annex and its chairman Bill Zanker.

Kiyosaki was one of the small-time wealth guru mountebanks who made it to the big-time in the aughts by telling his forever falling behind audience that they could get ahead, they just had not learned how. The schtick behind the Rich Dad books was that Kiyosaki was sharing secret money-making strategies of the wealthy with his wage slave readers. The tips ran the gamut from ridiculous to illegal and downright hurtful and included advocating for insider trading, arguing for the purchase of multiple real estate properties with little or no money down and telling followers they could purchase stocks on margin via unfunded brokerage accounts.

The Learning Annex was one of Kiyosaki’s earliest backers, and helped arrange a number of his most prominent speaking gigs in the early aughts. They were not alone. Oprah Winfrey had him on her show, and PBS ran his programming during their fundraising weeks.

So how did Kiyosaki, whom the website Celebrity Net Worth estimates is worth a cool $80 million, come to this pass?

Well, he didn’t come to any pass. He now conducts much of his business not via Rich Global LLC but under the rubrik Rich Dad Co. And it’s a corporate bankruptcy, not a personal bankruptcy. When the New York Post, which broke the story, tracked down Mike Sullivan, Rich Dad Co. CEO, he informed them that Kiyosaki would not be putting any of his personal fortune toward the settlement. As for Rich Global, Sullivan claimed it only had a few million in its coffers.

Of course, you could argue that Learning Annex CEO Zanker should have known better. No one has ever proven that Rich Dad, the man who supposedly gave Kiyosaki all his advice for wealthy living, ever existed. Nor has anyone ever documented any vast reserves of wealth earned by Kiyosaki prior to the publication of Rich Dad, Poor Dad in 1997.

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At least for me,,,, Robert is a Professor of Applied Finance & my rich dad, he knows what he is doing, it doesn’t discourage me if he declared bankruptcy. I will wait for his new book, may be titled as ‘Rich are Proud to be Bankrupt’ Only Poor are Ashamed…….

The article is good, it inculcates crucial news though may not be viable to the world most especially the fans of Mr. Kiyosaki. This article and related ones prior to it will probably reposition him at the most beneficial edge to the world since he will endeavor to guard his reputation. Mr. Kiyosaki teaches much from his past experience and bankruptcy means past mistakes made along the way. So, this is another lesson he has learned to stick deeply in his subconscious mind. It’s another experience on top of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. In fact he is likely to write a book on bankruptcy because few people if not none will doubt the occurrence of this new experience. The world is therefore optimistic about Mr. kiyosaki’s coaching due to this new experience. Personally, i am a fan of Mr. Kiyosaki and have learned much from his book and social media through coaches. I have several business plans but do not have capital to run, not even for a small project to start with to get there. It’s my humble prayer to get favor from any one to give me a hand financially no matter how little or small it may be. I believe anything can start something. Thank you very, very much

That is “below the belt” calling this great man a “mountebank”. If “y-o-u” Hellaine had achieved an iota of his self-made status.

1. What specifically about his advice is wrong? What specifically is not ABSOLUTE HORRENDOUSLY AMAZING ? Are you Hellaine out of your mind ?

This Great magazine Forbes should never allow someone like Hellaine to criticise such a great man and amazing author. Let’s get to facts:

Kiyosaki set up a brilliant framework to conceptualise the creation of wealth through business.

If Kiyosaki has done anything ‘wrong’ – by way of cheating people then the FTA would be onto him. He has not done anything “wrong”. Civil disputes happen all the time and in this case, according to you he lost out to Zanker .But Zanker was putting up many people including psychics – why don’t you go after Zanker or psychics or others ? Why Kiyosaki ?

2. If Kiyosaki advocated any illegal or improper trading or home buying technique- then he would be ‘wiped clean’ by the Feds (FTA, etc.) but that is not the case here. Why Hellaine have you bemirched the name of such a great man ? How dare you do that?

This is not journalism. This is third rate filth – in my professional objective opinion.

3. As for the “Rich” Dad – indeed it is a brilliant story and metaphor. The real “rich Dad” is Keith Cunnnigham . What is brilliant about Kiyosaki is the ability to put forward dry concepts (i.e. finances) in brilliant terms (i.e. story telling) but give absolute amazing advice .

He has uniquely and always stated that one needs a team that includes lawyers, accountants and so forth.

4. Kiyosaki is so good that Trump co-authors books with him: a very rare event.

Hellaine – seriously woman, how dare you write such a nonsensical judgmental article against him ? I am shocked. Shocked.

Addendum: one can not be an “expert” on how to sell books (not in the context that you mean. One can be so in other contexts such as if you work for Random House etc.) . Your logic is wrong. It just so happens that his books are so much in demand by so many people.

It does not matter if he made his seed money (several millions) from selling books because he turned that into several hundred millions with backend product and seminar sales and further seminars and private coaching etc.

Kiyosaki is the ‘real deal’: he is good friends of Donald Trump.

He is VERY wise to make a company of his that owes over $200million go bankrupt. The company is a SEPERATE legal entity : stop criticising him. Do you understand what “separate legal entity” means Hellaine ? This is done all the time in commericial law by huge companies.

Instead of blaming him: why not blame capitalism? Because it is fair, it is free and it is the best way.

I want to read this book! My father has been going through a tough time, dealing with being on the verge with bankruptcy. I also have a buddy who is attempting to file for bankruptcy in London, Ontario. I will recommend this to them!

I realize I’m roughly 2 months late in reading this article, but I was shocked at the obvious lack of research that was done to form your opinion of one of the greatest investors of our time. I have read all 11 books in the Rich Dad Poor Dad series, in addition to books written by Robert’s property manager, Ken McElroy. I am a third generation real estate appraiser who eats sleeps and breaths the real estate market. Unlike my other family members, I am learning via Mr. Kiyosaki how to approach investing differently in a way that isn’t taught in school. The truth of the matter is, the subject of increasing student’s financial intelligence on how the world truly operates is not taught in our schools. After 2 appraisal certifications, a broker’s license, a double major in Marketing and Real Estate, along with 5 years of continuing real estate education I can attest that nothing Robert has ever suggested in any of his books is “illegal or down right hurtful” (whatever you mean by that). He takes sound, logical advice, and applies it in a way that is approachable, understandable, and attainable by every day folk. I greatly appreciated reading Mr. Thomas Williams’ story of his personal success as I am just starting on my own path to financial freedom by following Robert Kiyosaki’s advice. I’m not even 30 and I already own my own home and two rental properties and plan to own at least 3 more in the next 2 years. Helaine, I’m sure you’re very intelligent, hard working, and a genuine person. I’d like to suggest that before writing an article for one of the most respected financial magazines …..you do a little more due dilligence. You are entitled to your opinion and I respect it, but I’m failing to see where you based these opinions on any hard cold facts sited within your article.

I’d like to ask the author- are you rich? can you show me your financial statement? Do you even know what that is? how many real estate investmend dow you have? how much passive income/ cashflow do you get from them? do you invest in stocks? do you invest in options? do you even know the difference? how many businesses do you run? how much are you worth? do you use depreciation in real estate? do you even know what depreciation for real estate means? do you know what ROI, IRR, down payement (real estate), mortgage or the differences in tax laws for business, real estate, stocks and employees?

I bet you only earn money from your job. I’d much rather listen to Mr kiyosaki’s life wisdom and experience than hear yourself defend you job. Because I dont care how much money you’ve earned because the fact of the matter is your just an employee with no business or investing expereince who obviously only makes money by criticisng those who do.

Because I’m 21 and if i can see that your article is EXTREMELY biased against Mr kiyosaki…..I’m just wondering how many people you think you are fooling with this ‘article’. It comes across as an example of irresponsible journalism.

I agree with Mr Basim Rasheed, I have lost respect for Forbes.

And dont come back at me with those same questions because judging a multimillioniare am I? and yes I can answer all the above questions such as the differences in tax laws despite the fact I am not a lawyer or studying law. Because THATS how much Robert has taught me unlike this useless article.

Great review. I must add that at the beginning of the third Chapter (Lesson Two:Why Teach Financial Literacy?), he reportedly quotes an 1923 article “THE RICHEST BUSINESSMEN” with the president of the BIS Leon Frazier (the BIS was not founded before 1930).

A 2003 article described the quoted 1923 article as a sham : http://www.snopes.com/glurge/fortune.asp

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Sure Kiyosaki may have had success in real estate in the 90′s and 00′s…but who didn’t?? I don’t think it qualifies him as a real estate expert. The problem with a lot of his books (and similar type get rich authors’ books) is that they give very few specifics on how to go about doing things. Most of their books are a sales pitch to get you to sign up for their classes. Then their classes are also a sales pitch to get you to sign up for the next higher up class. I had a friend go through all this taking out a loan to take a lot of the classes, he said the top class where they finally “told you all the secrets” was 50k…wow!